Hope's Restoration
by Unknown Force Spectre
Summary: In the moments leading up to Rey's appearance on Ach-To we find Luke Skywalker wrestling with ghosts of the past. His mind yearns for silence yet whenever he truly attains it the past comes back to haunt him. He wishes for things he should have done, regrets things he did do and fears for what must be done. This is a brief look into the mind of a hero fallen from grace.


The water flows swiftly along the ocean floor, here and there warm currents joining in, surging upwards towards the surface. Multitudes of sea life dart in and out of the ever-quickening flow. A large predatorial marine creature takes its opportunity to converge with the current and ride the warm stream with an almost imperceptible flick of a fin.

The creature knows where its headed, with a sudden violent turn it shoots out of the stream and slows itself down within sight of its destination. Just ahead, the creature spies the giant construct as it sits silently submerged underwater. It swims over the top left S Foil of the Rebel X-Wing and past the empty gaping socket where an Astromech usually sits. Its prey is the birds that come down and feed around the fighter. When they catch a morsel to eat they sit greedily on the surface of the water gulping down their food.

This is the opportunity the predator needs, it shoots to the surface and at the last moment opens its massive distended mouth ready to seize the bird whole. Unbeknownst to the bird its death is upon it when suddenly a feeling of complete serenity overtakes it. As if in slow motion, the bird drops the tiny fish it was so busily swallowing seconds before and takes to the air.

The predatory creature crests the surface of the water and jumps five foot clear of the water trying to catch its avian prey but its mouth closes on empty air with a loud snapping sound. It falls back into the water and circles the starfighter in frustration.

Meanwhile the bird has found an updraft and it climbs higher and higher feeling the exhilaration course through its body. As it glides up it has to make some quick deft moves to avoid hitting the rocky outcroppings that jut out dangerously from the nearby island. Slowly it comes to rest atop the tallest cliff edge amongst several more of its own kind.

Something the birds had mistaken for a large stone began to move, raising its hooded head. The birds suddenly scatter wildly to the air, the movement of so many wings causing the hood to fall back on the weathered old face underneath. An elderly man with a grey beard and haunted hollow eyes looks on forlornly as the birds dive over the edge. He silently laments that the birds can so easily leave anything and everything behind.

"You did exactly the same thing Luke." A wise caring voice says from out of the air behind the old man. Slowly, dim blue lights coalesce into the figure of a longhaired, bearded man.

"What do you want Jinn?" The old man asks in a tired creaking voice.

The Force Ghost of Qui Gon Jinn moves himself into Luke's eyesight and tilts his head to one side quizzically. "You wish for the ability to flee from your problems. Like your father you have no mindfulness of the Living Force. Always your thoughts dwell in the past, as did his."

Luke slightly bowed his head and then looked up in anger. "Wise words from the man that gave the galaxy Darth Vader."

"I gave the galaxy Anakin Skywalker!" Qui Gon said sternly before composing himself again. "He was the one The Prophecy predicted and he brought balance to the Force."

"Balance? BALANCE?" Luke's sudden outburst caused Qui Gon to take a step back. "Never balance! Always one side, Jedi or Sith, Light or Dark. Forever in a state of warring atrocity, forever leaning to one side or the other. Your Jedi prophecy was nothing but the delusional wishes and hopes of an order that had grown stagnant in its own power."

"Your Jedi prophecy?" Another glowing translucent Force Ghost steps out of the darkness. His long white beard and sharp eyes identify him as Obi Wan Kenobi. Qui Gonn acknowledges him with a smile and a nod while Luke does not even look at him. "You don't count yourself a Jedi Luke?"

"Of course I do Ben. I mean, I was, I am...I don't know."

Qui Gon walks over to the edge of the cliff and watches the beautiful sunset taking place to the east. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. "Luke, you have done more than anyone without guidance or training could have asked of you. You are a Jedi Master and the last of your kind. You learned from the sacred texts and you found Holocrons to complete your training. If you don't pass your knowledge on you will leave the galaxy without light."

Obi Wan stands behind them both stroking his beard with his fingers.

"Can't you feel it?" Qui Gon continued. "All that darkness building up? Threatening to overflow into a deluge?"

"Yes, I feel it. I helped it into being."

Obi Wan stepped forward. "Luke, you of all people know that nobody is beyond redemption! Long after I had given up on the man that was your father, the man that I called brother, you were there for him." Obi Wan stroked his moustache. "Similarly, Ben needs you now Luke."

"Or he must be destroyed." A cold calm calculating voice cuts through the cool evening air bringing with it a chill that runs deep. A Force Ghost with wild unruly hair and a scar across his face comes into existence. His form is fainter than the other two and the blue sheen is closer to purple.

"Anakin!" Qui Gonns voice is reprimanding and fierce. "That is not the Jedi way."

"The Jedi way master?" How many times did you flaunt the rules to achieve your ends?" Anakin's cocky smile splits his face like the scar that runs down his cheek.

Luke stood up slowly, painfully. "The Jedi way, the Sith way. It is becoming clearer and clearer to me day by day that ideology is all that separates the two. The Force is what binds us all, not ideology." Luke wrapped his robe about himself to block out some of the cold despite knowing that the true cold that harries him cannot be kept out by clothing. He walks away from the three shimmering men and down the crude stone steps that lead into a large cave.

Obi Wan turns to Anakin and shoots him a stern frown. The ghost of Anakin bowed deeply in an ironic fashion. "Sorry master" he replies as he disappears into swirling eddies of purple luminescence that eventually faded.

Obi Wan frowns at the spot where his former student stood. Turning to his right he sees Qui Gonn frowning at him in the same way. "Yes well, you were the one that had to pick up a stray from Tattooine." Both ghosts fade away slowly...

Inside the big open cavern, Luke hunches over, looking at a raised plinth on the floor with a large but shallow water filled bowl embedded in it. It's filled with water and at the bottom of the bowl is a Jedi mosaic made up of intricate tiles. It depicts a being in perfect harmony, both sides of light and darkness in blissful balance. The water that sits on top of the mosaic ripples slightly and Luke feels a familiar chill.

"The Jedi of old would want you to act, to be mindful of the Living Force and to stride into the galaxy righting all the wrongs." Anakin stopped to take a breath, letting his eyes close tightly. "I wasn't there for you my son, but you were always there for me. You never let me go and you were the one to bring balance, not me." He opened his eyes and looked deep into Luke's fixed gaze. "You've done what you've considered to be right and true. Search your feelings; you know what you must do. Ben Solo must be taken out of the equation lest there be another Vader." The dim purple image of Anakin distorts slightly showing hints of the armored monstrosity that terrorized the galaxy.

"You would have me kill my own nephew?"

"Yes...you felt it, he has the capacity for much more than you can imagine." Anakin's purple hue grew stronger momentarily. "He must be stopped."

"Dealing in absolutes is Sith territory." Obi Wan fades into existence beside Luke. "There are ways to move people and situations to where you want them." He raised an eyebrow toward Anakin "Violence isnt always the answer."

"So it's to be manipulation then my master?" Anakin said through a smirk.

Luke watched the water on the mosaic grow more agitated. He was long past these arguments that warred continuously in his mind and felt that inaction was the only answer to a galaxy that cannot be saved. Nevertheless the pain inside was growing unbearable as even in his exile he is tormented by the past.

"Watch your words Anakin, they were forever your weak point." Obi Wan shook his head. "Too quick to action and too quick with words."

"You always underestimated me Obi Wan."

"If you recall it was you who underestimated me, Anakin."

"ENOUGH!" Luke thrust his open palm into the mosaic sending out pure waves of Force energy that immediately dissipated the force ghosts leaving him alone in the cavern. This was what he hated most, when he was alone the ghosts of the past spoke louder than any Force Sending ever could.

He wasn't sure if a tear fell from his cheek or if it was water from the mosaic bowl. He once again bundled himself up and strode from the cavern. Silence descended in the room once more and the water settled back to its serene slumber in the mosaic. A small Force Ghost dipped a tiny toe in the water.

"Still so young." Yoda stirred the water with his gnarled cane. "I still sense much conflict in him, but resolution on its way, it is."

Luke strode to one of the sheerest clifftops he knew of and stood looking over the incredible drop to the tumultuous waters below. Slowly he reached a hand up to his belt and unclipped his lightsaber. He turned it over in his hands studying it, feeling very detached. He remembered creating this weapon on his own and he remembered using it to cut off his father's hand. With it, he had defended the innocent and changed the course of galactic history.

"All things end." He whispered to the ether. "Even the Jedi." With that, he hurled the lightsaber as far as human might would take it, then reached out through the force and pushed it beyond the distant horizon and into the sea. He felt the Kyber Crystal's energy fading from his senses and he took a deep measured breath. At last, he would never see a lightsaber again.

Sensing a sudden disturbance, he turned to look back down the cliff at the stairs he had used earlier. A determined young woman is walking towards him, and she has something in her hand...


End file.
